


The Warrior in the Waiting Room

by River_Autumn



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, Alternate Universe - Medical, Alternate Universe-Different Time Period, Custody Battle, Divorce, F/F, LGBTQ Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 08:05:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1183888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/River_Autumn/pseuds/River_Autumn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Sleeping Warrior Week prompt “Different Time Period AU”. It's October 14, 1979, the day of the First March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Aurora collapses at the march, and Mulan rushes her to the emergency room.  When they arrive,  Mulan is told that since she isn’t Aurora’s “real” family, she has no rights.  What can she do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Warrior in the Waiting Room

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sleeping Warrior Week 2, off of the prompt "Different Time Period AU". This is set in Washington, DC on October 14, 1979, the day of the First March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. 
> 
> For more information about Sleeping Warrior Week, check out thesleepingwarrior.tumblr.com! You can check me out at riverautumn.tumblr.com. Thanks for reading!

“I’m telling you, I _**am**_ her family!” Mulan protested.

The nurse replied, speaking loudly and slowly as if Mulan was having trouble understanding her words.  “And I’m telling _**you**_ , Miss Fa, that you do not have any legal right to patient information, or any authority to offer medical consent on behalf of Mrs. Prince.”

“Please, just _**look**_ ,” urged Mulan, “I can show you the papers...I have power of attorney, we have living wills, we have a household, a family--”

“Miss Fa--”

“--For God’s sake, we have a child together!”

At this, the nurse's lip curled in disgust.  With barely concealed revulsion, she held her clipboard to her chest. A slim gold band gleamed dully under the harsh fluorescent light.   Her voice took on a firm, forbidding tone.  "Miss Fa," she said, "I have been very clear with you, and as patient and considerate as humanly possible," _with someone like you_ remained unspoken, but hung in the air. "Only the next of kin, such as a blood relative or a _**husband**_ can give consent on a patient's behalf.  We share patient information only with the patient's family.  With her **_real_** family."

"Then just let me see her, please, please” Mulan begged. Begging, she was reduced to begging this woman for the right to see her partner.  It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.  Aurora could be dying right now. She needed to be with her. Her temper flared, and she snapped,  “You can’t keep me from her. I--"

Just then all hell broke loose.  Someone shouted, “She’s not breathing! Call a code!” The whole area swarmed with with doctors and nurses working feverishly and calling out things Mulan didn’t understand.

“What does that mean? What’s happening?”  Mulan demanded,  “Aurora? AURORA!” Mulan tried to push past the nurse, frantic to see Aurora, to make some sense of what was happening.

“Get her out of here!” called one of the doctors.

“Miss Fa, OUT. NOW.”  The nurse turned and pulled the curtain closed behind her.

Mulan raked her hands through her hair let out an anguished breath. She ran a hand over her mouth as her mind raced, running through her options.  None. She had no options left.

She had to make a phone call.

\---

Mulan raced to a bank of pay phones and picked up one of the receivers. She fumbled for coins in her pockets With a shaking hand,  she dropped two dimes into the coin slot.  She dialed the number without even thinking. Even after all of this time,  she still knew the number by heart.  

The phone rang twice. Three times. “Come on, come on,” muttered Mulan.

The phone picked up on the fourth ring. A masculine voice answered, “Prince residence.”

Mulan nearly shouted in relief. “Phillip!”

“Mulan," Phillip replied curtly, "I don’t have anything to say to you. Tell Aurora she can talk to my lawyer.” 

Mulan nearly shouted into the receiver, “No, no, no, don’t hang up!!  Phillip, Phillip, wait, It’s Aurora.  She’s in the emergency room!”

“What? How…”

“I don’t know!” cried Mulan in frustration, “She just collapsed and when we got here in the ambulance they took her. They won’t tell me anything, Phillip, they say since I’m not legally her family I can’t make any decisions or see her or make them tell me anything. She stopped breathing, Phillip. I think she might even die.”

Silence.

“Which hospital?” Phillip asked quietly.

“GW.” Mulan held her breath, hoping against hope.

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” He hung up the phone.

Mulan sagged against the phone.

\----

Twenty minutes felt like an eternity.  Mulan paced back and forth in the waiting area, twitching the fingers of her right hand and drumming them on her leg.  God, she wanted a cigarette.

She quit for Aurora; Aurora asked, and Mulan would do anything for the woman.  It was Aurora who asked Mulan to stay with her and make a life together, when Mulan would have walked away so Aurora could have a simple, happy life with her husband and soon-to-be child.  It was Aurora whose love and gentle strength buoyed her when things got tough. It was Aurora--gentle, loving Aurora--who wanted to fight for their rights as a lesbian family, to join this March on Washington for the rights of all gays and lesbians.  Aurora and her daughter were the center of Mulan’s life. She would do anything for them.

And when Aurora collapsed at the protest rally, Mulan thought her own heart had stopped.

_Twenty minutes.  Where the hell is he?_

She stormed towards the door and nearly collided into Phillip as he barrelled into the hospital.  

“What happened? And where’s my daughter?” he demanded, “I swear, if you let anything happen to her--”

Mulan responded hotly, “Rose is with her grandmother. She is just fine, and this is not the time for you to collect more ammunition to help you tear her away from her mother.  Her mother, who by the way might be dying right now while you stand here bickering with me. Who knows?  If you keep this up long enough, you might not have to continue your custody case after all!”

Phillip paused and took a deep breath. He raised his hands in a gesture of peace and said, “Fine. Okay,” he took another breath, and passed his hand over his eyes. “Okay. You’re right, I’m sorry. Which way?”

Mulan led him to the desk off the waiting area.  The nurse was back. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Mulan.  “I have already told you, Miss Fa--”

Phillip cut in, “I’m Phillip Prince.  I understand that Aurora Prince was brought in here this afternoon?”

The nurse’s attitude transformed completely.  “Oh, yes, Mr. Prince,” she nodded sympathetically, “Mrs. Prince has been moved to the intensive care unit. I tried to explain to...this woman,” she sniffed in disapproval, “that we only allow family members, but she keeps claiming that she is family--”

"She is. She’s...my sister."

“Sister?” The nurse pursed her lips and looked skeptically at the two of them. The clean cut All-American young man, Storybrooke’s favorite son. The Chinese woman in the beat-up dungarees and close-cropped hair. “Sister,” she repeated.

“Is there a problem?” Phillip asked archly, staring at the nurse. Daring her to say something.  The nurse backs down under his level stare.  

“No, of course not. If you say so...” The nurse continued doubtfully.

“I do,” he said firmly, “Which way to intensive care?”

\---

Phillip watched as Mulan rushed to Aurora’s bedside, sobbing in relief. She kissed Aurora’s forehead, whispered something low and fervent to her. She brushed Aurora’s hair back from her eyes and studied her face intently. Aurora lay there, still and quiet as the machines softly wheezed and beeped around her.

He heard someone approaching behind him and turned around to see a youngish man in a lab coat. “Mr. Prince?” the man asked, “I’m Dr. Whale.”

Mulan looked up in surprise, then stood up to join the two men. “What can you tell us, Doctor?  Why isn’t she waking up?”

Dr. Whale looked taken aback.  Phillip murmured, “This is Mulan Fa. She’s Mrs. Prince’s...partner. You can talk to both of us.”

Dr. Whale nodded. “Very well. The truth is, Mr. Prince, Miss Fa, I can’t tell you very much at all just now.  We have her stabilized for now, but the truth is that beyond that we haven’t been able to find the cause of her collapse, or a medical reason for her continued unconscious state.”

“So what’s the next step?” Phillip asked

Dr. Whale answered, “We’ll need your consent to run a series of diagnostic tests”

“Do it,” Mulan and Phillip started speaking at the same time, and then abruptly stopped to look at each other warily.

“Yes, please,” continued Phillip.

“Anything she needs,” agreed Mulan.

“Very well,” said Dr. Whale, “There will be some papers to sign, and a technician will be along shortly. Dr. Whale scribbled some notes on Aurora’s chart, replaced it, and left.

By then, Mulan had already returned to sit by Aurora’s bedside. Her hand rested on Aurora’s cheek and she gazed intently at Aurora’s face.

Phillip hovered at the foot of the bed.  There was a time where the three of them were inseparable. When he and Mulan were the best of friends, slogging through college together and starting their business after graduation. When he and Aurora spent their days breathlessly waiting to see each other and their nights intertwined around each other. When all of them stayed up all night long laughing and dreaming about the future.  And now, standing there, he felt like an intruder.

Aurora was still. Her hands were folded across her chest. She was so very still, and so fragile, lying in that bed. So achingly beautiful. Even now, she had a gentle smile on her face. As if she was just sleeping, dreaming about something peaceful and happy.

Phillip was frozen in place at the foot of the bed, unsure of himself.

Mulan broke the silence, startling him. “She never wanted it to be like this,”  Mulan murmured. Her hand was resting on Aurora’s arm, and she spoke her eyes stayed on Aurora’s face, “With us.  She never wanted to hurt you.”

It never stopped. It never stopped hurting. “I know,” he said quietly. He took in a breath. It felt like jagged shards of ice in his chest. “But she loves you.”

Mulan smiled. A small, sad smile. “She loves you, too.” She looked up at Phillip. “She loves us both.”

Phillip slowly moved to the other side of the bed.  His fingertips gently brushed Aurora’s shoulder. He sat down, and took one of Aurora’s clasped hands in his, brushing his thumb across her knuckles. Carefully, as if he might wake her. As if he might break.  Mulan rested her hand on Aurora’s too, touching her fingertips to Phillip’s.

And so the two of them sat, hands clasped, keeping vigil together through the night. Watching over the woman they both loved more than anything in the world. Watching her as she slept.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This fic focuses on two major issues for lesbian and gay families: medical rights (the right to be treated as family/next of kin, and to have legal power of attorney in medical matters) and child custody (even in liberal areas like the DC metro area, people in gay and lesbian relationships risked losing custody of their children).
> 
> Living Wills were starting to gain popularity in the 1970s, but they were not universally accepted. In the case of LGBT families, they were frequently ignored, depending on how the medical staff at that particular hospital felt about homosexuality. Legal experts began advising partnered gays and lesbians to make sure they had properly executed living wills, medical directives, and power of attorney documents...and to have them readily accessible.


End file.
